§ Mr. David Atkinson accordingly presented a Bill to make provision with respect to the capability of computer systems and other goods and related services to deal with calendar dates after 31st December 1999; to require certain invoices to be paid promptly; to make 31st December 1999 a bank holiday; and for connected purposes: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 24 April, and to be printed [Bill 165].
§ Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow)On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. As one of the Bill's sponsors, I say yet again that, under the procedures of the House, there is an argument for ten-minute Bills being taken a bit more seriously. If the Committee stage of the first Bill of the hon. Member for Bournemouth, East (Mr. Atkinson), the Companies (Millennium Computer Compliance) Bill, on which I served, had been taken as seriously as then Ministers said it would be, we might not have been in quite such a pickle as we are.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst)I hope that all matters before the House are taken seriously at all times. I repeat the advice that I gave the hon. Gentleman on an earlier occasion, that that matter might usefully be taken up with the Leader of the House, either in her capacity as such or as Chairman of the Modernisation Committee.